For the innovative surgery, doctors first used the CT scan of the heart and converted it into a three dimensional model of the patient's heart. This helped them to diagnose inaccessible areas of the heart and complete treatment.

A similar type of 3D technology was used by a city's neurosurgeon recently for a more accurate and precise surgery. In 2016, Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital's neurosurgeons had performed the surgery by preparing a 3D model of the craniovertebral junction (CVJ) for correcting the CVJ anomaly, a complicated surgery that gave no scope for error.

Now, interventional cardiologists have started using the 3D printing technology to minimise chances of error during a surgery. “We sent CT scan images to a Mumbai-based 3D printing firm. A CT scan is two dimensional and can provide detailed information about the heart. For a more detailed access to the heart, the firm provided us with a model of exactly the same heart structure made by using the 3D printing technique,“ said Dr Ravinder Singh Rao, director, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and interventional cardiologist of a private hospital.

Dr Rao said that an open heart surgery to remove calcified blockage in the main artery was quite risky for the elderly patient, who underwent the valve replacement procedure. “The model helped us to conduct TAVR and angioplasty successfully ,“ said Dr Rao.

The doctors assessed whether the valve can be replaced without an open heart surgery through the 3D model technique. The 84-year-old patient, a resident of Mumbai, was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis. She suffered shortness of breath even during minimal activity. Her val ve could not be replaced with an open heart surgery as it requires surgeons to cut the diseased aortic valve and replace it with a new valve. But, in this case, doctors used the transcatheter implantation of prosthetic aortic valves, inserted through the thigh of the patient. SMS Hospital's surgeons are also using the 3D technique to remove gallbladder with cholelithiasis disease, commonly known as stones in gallbladder.

In 2D technique, only one camera is used in laparoscopic surgery to remove the gallbladder while in the 3D technique two cameras are used in surgeries. The 2D provides images from 30 degrees to 45 degrees and surgeons have to rotate the camera while conducting surgeries. But in 3D, two cameras provide 360-degree images.

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